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Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically, which we share with Chickens, Cats, Guinea Pigs and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent the last many many years as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council. I offer talks and run workshops and events where we talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. We also make crafts and have fun. We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Of blight and seed saving

Blight has finally hit the potatoes :-( Given the humidity and totally wet time we have had here since April I am frankly amazed that we have managed to get this far into the summer without signs of blight, but now it is there.

So Compostman has chopped off all the haulms for all three of the raised beds with spuds in them and we will wait for several weeks before lifting the potatoes. If we do this we will hopefully have usable potatoes which we can store over winter.

I have also started this season seed saving. This is HSL Asparagus Lettuce, a soft, buttery tasting cut and come again variety which I love. As this seeded inside the polytunnel before any other lettuce set flowers, I know it will be true to type, so I am saving some of the seed for my own use. I have put the stems in a paper bag, seed heads down and when it has finally dried I will gently rub the flowers to get at the seeds.

I have also got the dehydrator down from the attic :-) yep folks, it is THAT time of year ( finally!) when the harvest starts :-)